A commonly used type of electrical terminal has one or more wire-receiving slots and an adjacent U-shaped strain relief portion. When the terminal is installed on a wire, the wire is moved into the wire-receiving slot or slots and the U-shaped strain relief portion is simultaneously crimped onto the wire.
The known types of tools for inserting the wire into the slot and simultaneously crimping the strain relief portion of the terminal onto the wire comprise a single ram on which a wire inserter and a crimping die are mounted. Heretofore, it has been found necessary to mount at least one of the tools, the inserter or the crimping die, adjustably on the ram in order to permit use of the tool with wires of more than one diameter, that is with wires that lie within a predetermined range of diameters. If the tool has an adjustment feature of this type and if the technician makes the required adjustment for the particular wire which is being used, good electrical connections will be obtained between the conducting core of the wire and the wire-receiving slot and good crimped connections will be obtained in the strain relief portion of the terminal. However, the technician will sometimes neglect to make the required adjustments to the tool or he may be misinformed as to the diameter of the wire which is being supplied to him and the tool will not be properly adjusted for the wire size. When this happens, inferior electrical connections will result or the crimped connection will not be properly made.
The present insertion is directed to the achievement of an improved tool of the general class described above which does not require adjustment for different wire diameters provided the wire diameter lies within a predetermined range of wire diameters.